"Where doing your best is always top of mind"

February 04, 2009

I sat at dinner tonight with some amazing people. At the table were a psychiatry professor, an advertising executive, a creative director, a fundraiser, a consultant, a manager from Taiwan, a film producer and a high tech executive. We started with introductions and such, but it got amazing as we began to talk about quantum entanglement, psychology and DARPA. I just sat there in amazement as people connected, talked and shared ideas. It was amazing to see the COO of livescribe (Sasha Pesic) describe his company's pen and demo it to those at the table. It opened up another series of great discussions. Did I mention Morgan Spurlock is here - one of my favorite film makers (he may ask for a restraining order if I keep following him). Amy is making plenty of friends by the pool. I walked out before dinner and she had six people standing around her laughing and sharing their backgrounds - I am so glad she is here to share this with me.

This is what TED is all about - opening the mind and exhanging ideas. I look forward to sharing more with you the rest of the week. Right now - I am speechless.

January 24, 2009

I went this morning with my children to go to the new Please Touch Museum here in Philadelphia. I am constantly reminded of how much history there is in this town and what amazing things lurk Behind closed doors. The new Museum is located at Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park right outside of Philadelphia.

I highly recommend the museum if you have children, but what really amazed me was the Centennial Exhibition Display down on the lower level. There is an entire scale model of the Exhibition that is amazing. considered to be the first World's Fair - the Centennial Exhibition welcomed over 9 million people in 1876 to Philadelphia when the entire population of the country was only 46 Million. What struck me even more was the fact that the entire grounds and exhibition were entirely constructed in two years time.

Let's think about that for a moment. They constructed a complete city over a 285-acre tract of Fairmount
Park overlooking the Schuylkill River. The fairgrounds, designed
almost exclusively by 27-year-old German immigrant Hermann J. Schwarzmann,
was host to 37 nations and countless industrial exhibits occupying
over 250 individual pavilions. One of the buildings - Was considered to be the largest building of its time in the world. All of this done without cell phones, televisions, marketing firms or twitter. There were no bulldozers, cranes or dump trucks at the time either.

When we think about what can and cannot be done these days - think of what was accomplished only 100 years into America's existence and see what resources this country can bring to bear when it puts it mind to it. With over 300 Million People and a $13 Trillion GDP - no telling what Hermann and his team could pull off in modern times. Anything is Possible.

November 05, 2008

I fell asleep late into the evening last night waiting to see the results of the election and awoke to see that Obama had won. Though he may not have been my candidate of choice - he is now our new President and History will forever remember this moment.

It took 40 years from Martin Luther King's speech to finally have an African-American lead our country and that by itself is monumental. I am excited for my children and countless others all over the world who see what has happened and embrace President Elect Obama.

My hope is that we can move past politics, taxes and anger and move on to a better place where we begin to focus on being truly Americans - unified by our common purpose and stronger through our diversity.

October 23, 2008

It has been interesting the past weeks to see, hear and absorb all the different viewpoints on the economy, politics and the world around us. It is sometimes hard to avoid hearing any of it when it appears around every corner.

These are tough times financially and politically for many on a global basis- but they are certainly not the worst. The worst times may come for someone who is battling cancer or a divorce, or the sickness of a child. The worst may come for someone who loses their job or their home. The worst times may be for someone who has no food to feed their family.

My perspective has changed in many ways through this past year. I see all the good in people and life around us. Sitting in a hospital bed for seven months can change your view on may things. What do I see?

I see the warmth and love of my children smile when I think of their giggles.

I see people with so little to give - helping those around them.

I see what is possible every day - not what isn't.

Hard times are in the eye of the beholder. Treat your brain like a bucket of information - keep feeding it fear, desperation and CNN and sooner or later - everything you see will be half empty.

Take a break from the news and the fear of these times and start being present - living the life you have always imagined. Be with the ones you love and do what makes you happy - You might just see things from a different perspective.

September 17, 2008

I am starting to come to a realization about the age we are in - we don't lack information. We can get every nano of info (good and bad) from every source every minute of the day on every kind of device (including our refrigerators LCD). We can tag it, index it, google it, email it, store it, rate it, blog it, share it, reply to it, video it, twitter it, etc......

Guess what - you are never ever going to be able to take it all in and stop trying to. Slow down, pick and choose, absorb and learn and most of all breathe. Information is great - just don't drink it and make yourself too drunk.

I was talking with a friend the other day who was just so overwhelmed by it all - the phone, the email, the pace. Guess what - it is a choice. You can either control it - or it controls you.

These days - I have started to just mark all of my RSS items read at the end of the day and I still work to get my inbox to zero (thank you Mr. Allen). I focus on a clear mental picture of "Mind Like Water" and complete control over the info at hand. It takes time but it works.

Here is the best part - everything you are so focused on not missing - it just got digitized. That means it does not go away ever again. It is now available to anyone - when you need it.

So here are the things I am focused on these days:

spending less time reading and sharing everything out there - just what I need for that day

spending more time prioritizing and accomplishing the little things (They add up)

learning to be more present each day with myself and those around me.

Life is too short to look back and say - I wish I bookmarked more on Delicious.

July 14, 2008

Some time ago I did a show on Habits. They play an important role in your life. Like many aspects of your life, habits can be considered both a blessing and a curse. Robert Russell in his magnificent little book "You Try It" wrote that habit was God's way of making good automatic in your life.
I had a wonderful friend in Atlanta, the late Dr. Jay Dishman, who wrote an excellent article about habit in his monthly newsletter dated February 1985. I have shared Dr. Dishman's article with thousands of people around the world. Today I want to share it with you. Here goes!

"Recently I visited Alcatraz Prison. Once it housed the most hardened of criminals. Today it is open to tourists under the direction of the United States Parks Department. Many men have tried to escape Alcatraz; no one is known to have succeeded. As I listened to the tour guide explain the impossibility of escape, I thought of other prisons equally confining but where the doors are never locked, no guards walk the halls, and escape is encouraged and possible. That prison is Habit."
Our habit is thinking about ourselves and our environment as a jail or a paradise. We need but to look around us to see people who are rich emotionally and materially because they think and feel rich. We also see people who are laden with emotional and material debt because they think lack. Some are inspired with vision, others are encumbered with doubt. Some are moved by ambition, others feel safer in monotony. Some reach for the mountain tops, others huddle in the pits. Some seek opportunity, others wait for it to knock. The sad fact is that more people are confined by their thoughts than are fed by them.
Negative thinking shuts us in a prison, but there is a way out. The apostle Paul said, "Be transformed by the renewal of your mind." Paul knew a lot about prisons, both physical and mental. You renew your life by renewing your mind. You renew your mind when you change your habit of thinking.
"

Dr. Jay Dishman helped thousands change their habit of thinking in his lifetime. Now hopefully he has helped you.
Bob Proctor

July 06, 2008

I was sitting a few weeks ago in the movie "Kung Fu Panda" with my family and there was a line from the zen master turtle that I loved;

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift - that is why they call it a present.

I have really been thinking about this lately and even more so as I watch friends of mine who I follow with Cancer. What helps me reading their stories and following their blogs is realizing the gift of today. How much time is wasted getting wrapped up in the who, what, where, when and why of minor things. I try not to focus my time dealing with things that take me away from what is most important - my family, friends and relationships. I can't take my car, my home - or even my beloved i-pod with me to heaven (though I got to believe god is an Apple fan and has a store up there). All I can leave in this life is my daily actions of love friendship and example. It has really taken me a while to be more present with my daily life, but I am more at peace with so much more now. Today is a gift.

In celebration of the United States' Independence, we
bring you this true story of five men who broke through their terror
barrier and made a commitment to something huge.

The thirteen colonies (what would become the United
States) were being taxed unfairly under Great Britain's rule. Thomas
Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and
Roger Sherman were the five men that stood up for the Colonist's
rights. They argued that Great Britain had no jurisdiction to tax the
Colonies.

While all of the other Colonists felt that they were
being treated unfairly, none of them were willing to say so, as their
allegiance was still with the King of Great Britain. It was up to these
five men to push for the rights of the Colonists. They met at the
Virginia Convention and then again in Williamsburg to declare the
Colonies independent. John Adams stood up for the resolution that:
"these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and
independent states that they are absolved from all allegiance to the
British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the
State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

When these five men met to draft the Declaration of
Independence, there was no working process. They did not have someone
to lead the meeting, take minutes or even guide them as to how the
ideas should be presented. They were on their own to take control and
put all of their thoughts into an organized form that could be
presented to Congress. The committee decided on a general outline that
the document needed to follow, and then appointed Thomas Jefferson to
write the first draft. The weight of the 13 Colonies' independence now
rested on Jefferson's shoulders. Jefferson only had 17 days to finish
the first draft. He then got comments and revisions from the other
committee members and wrote a second draft. The document titled "A
Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in
General Congress Assembled" was presented to Congress on June 28, 1776.

These men knew that what was put on this paper could
have cost them their lives, did they not receive backup from Congress
and the other Colonists. If the King of Great Britain wanted to, he
could have had these men executed for encouraging the Colonists to go
against his rule. They put themselves on the line in order to gain
freedom for the rest of the Colonies.

On July 2, 1776 Congress and 12 of the 13 colonies
approved General Lee's Resolution for Independence, severing ties
between the Colonies and Great Britain for good. The next day, John
Adams wrote a letter to his wife predicting that July 2nd
would soon become a great American holiday. Congress then began to look
at the Declaration of Independence. After several days of debating,
word changing, and some content adjustment, Congress approved the
document on July 4, 1776.

Today America celebrates 232 years of independence
and freedom. Because these men did not let fear stand in their way,
because they did not hesitate to make the right choice, American
Citizens now have the right to vote, the right to free speech, the
right to practice any religion, the right to a fair trial, just to name
a few.